Sling hanger for pots

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a plurality of rope strands braided at the upper ends to form an attachment loop and knotted at their lower ends to form a pot sling. A plurality of beads are positioned on the ropes so that every other bead is lower than its adjacent beads. Sliding adjustment of the location of the beads on the ropes permits the rope strands to be formed into a net and fitted to pots of different configurations.

United States Patent [1 1 Brown et a1.

[ Oct. 28, 1975 SLING-HANGER FOR POTS Inventors: Cedric B. Brown;Christine K.

Brown, both of 948 N. Arthur, Fresno, Calif. 93728 Filed: June 26, 1974Appl. No.: 483,534

U.S. Cl. 248/318 Int. Cl. F16M 13/00 Field of Search 248/102, 317, 318;150/1,

ISO/1.7; 224/49; 47/35, 36

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 11/1886 Greenwood 248/318 11/1909Haglund 248/318 Snee 224/49 X Sherwood 248/318 Hielscher 248/318 Gabriel1 248/318 X Paprocki et a1 248/102 Primary Examiner-William H. SchultzABSTRACT Disclosed is a plurality of rope strands braided at the upperends to form an attachment loop and knotted at their lower ends to forma pot sling. A plurality of beads are positioned on the ropes so thatevery other bead is lower than its adjacent beads. Sliding adjustment ofthe location of the beads on the ropes permits the rope strands to beformed into a net and fitted to pots of different configurations. I

6 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures US. Patent Oct. 28, 1975 Sheet 1. of23,915,419

4m W v suN'c HANGER FOR POTS BACKGROUND OF INVENTION This inventionrelates generally to slings for supporting hanging pots and moreparticularly to slings formed from hanging strands and interconnected attheir lower ends to provide a' po'tholding net.

In the art of macrame it has long been known to form artistic sling pothangers from rope strands. These slings have been made in'a variety ofwaystogive different esthetic effects. Such'slings have-been used tosupport baskets,metal containers and pottery vases or potg. I

Recently, such slings have enjoyed an increased popularity andcommercial manufacture is now .quite prevelant; Particularly. where potsare to be supported bythe slings, structure :must be incorporated in thelower portionof-the sling fora net that willkeep the pot in the sling.In the past thishas generally been done by knotting adjacent ropestrands together to achieve a net-like configuration. This technique hasthe advantage of tailoring each sling to a pot of a particularconfiguration, or, at least a limited number of related configurations,since shorter, larger pots require a different net configuration for proper support than do tall, narrower pots.

Moreover, macrame slings, being limited to strands of rope or othermaterialwhich can be easily knotted,

are not capable of effectively utilizing other forms of flexible strandssuch as wire and chain.

In commercial manufacture, this requirement of tailoring the net to aparticular pot, or related group of pots, is a serious limitationbecause it requires many different sling models to be made, stored andmarketed.

A need, therefore, exists for an improved pot hanging sling in which thepot holding net can be adapted by the user to the configuration of anyof a large variety of pots.

It is, "therefore; a major object of our invention to provide a pothanging sling in which the net is formed by interconnecting adjacentflexible strands with alternately' positioned beads or rings which areslidable on the strands to vary the configuration of the net.

Another object of our invention is to provide a pot hanging sling of thetype described in which every other bead is positioned below: itsadjacent beads and passes one of the two strands passed by each of itsadjacent beads. i

A further object of our invention is to provide a pot hanging slingofthe type described-which is esthetically pleasing and yeteasilymanipulable by a user to adapt it to the configuration of aparticular pot.

Still another object of our invention is to provide a pot hangingslingof the type.describedwhichassures satisfactory usage by reason of itsability tobe fitted to the particular pot to be supported and therebyprovide the maximum support in combination with the most artisticappearance possible. 1

Yet another object of our invention is to provide such a pot hangingsling which is economical to manufacture and highly durable, andisadaptable to use with nearly FIG? 1 is an elevational view of apreferred embodiment of our invention showing it in use for supporting arelatively slender pot; I

"FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line2'2 in FIG.

- FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the preferred embodiment at 'FIG. 1;

FIGI4' is an enlarged sectional view of a single bead with the'ropestrands passing through it;

' FIGCS 'is a partial elevational view showing our invention supportinga more bulbous pot;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of our preferred embodiment applied tohold a pot of still another shape;

and Y are utilized.

Referring now to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, thenumeral 10 designates generally a preferred embodiment of our slinghanger. The sling is formed of rope strands 12, the upper ends of whichare braided back up themselves at 14 to form an attachment loop 16. i Y

-.At ther-lower ends of the rope strands 12, a knot 18 is formed to holdthe strands together, and the distal lower ends hang downward as atassle 20.

To'provide structure for holding a pot 21 in the lower portion of thesling, beads are mounted on the rope strands. ,By positioning, thesebeads consist of lower beads 22 and upper beads 24. Each of the beadshas a passage 25 which passes two rope strands and is slidable on thesestrands.

The lower beads 22 are alternated around the periphcry of the sling withupper beads 24, and each bead joins two adjacent rope strands. Forexample, lower bead 22a (see FIG. 1) joins rope strands 12a and 12b,

and is located lower on strand 12b than the next adja .cent bead (movingleftward in the Figure), upper bead 240. Upper bead 24a joins strands12b and 12c. The next bead, lower bead 22b, joins strands 12c and 12d,and is lower on the rope strands 12 than upper bead 24a, andhorizontally aligned with lower bead 22a. Fi-

the net structure 26 can be located about the lip 28 of the pot 21 andexpanded or contracted in vertical coverage to provide the best possiblestability. By illustration, the lower beads 22 in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 arearranged at the base of the lip 28 of the pot and the upper beads 24 arelocated about as far above the upper rim 30 of the pot as the lowerbeads are below it. As best shown in FIG. 3, this provides a network ofinverted Vs in the strands as they pass over the rim 30 and causesequally spaced support points 32 from each strand about the pot rim.

With our sling hanger thus formed and arranged about a pot 21 it will beseen that the knot 18 at the lower ends of the rope strands 12 centersitself under the pot bottom and supports the weight of the pot andFIG;"7 'is'a side elevational view of a modified form of our inventionin which three rows rather than two its contents. The function of thenet structure 26 is to contain the upper portion of the pot by keepingit centered on the knot 18 and preventing it from tipping out of thesling between the rope strands. Control of the upper portion of the potis achieved not only by the multiple support points 32 which thestrandsprovide on the rim 30, but also by the ring of lower beads 22which provide somewhat of a band about the pot throat just below the lip28. Actually, for the pot 21 to escape from the-sling, the full diameterof the rim 30 must be passed between the legs of the alternately uprightand inverted Vs formed by the net structure 26. As best seen in FIG. 3,this is possible when the net structure is properly adjusted.

A comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2 will illustrate the facility of our slingto provide the equally sure support for pots of differentconfigurations. Where the net structure 26 is formed by knots instead ofbeads, this would not be possible and stable support could be providedfor only one pot configuration per sling. The commercial implications ofour variable net structure sling can, therefore, be readily appreciated.

In FIG. 6 we show our sling 10 applied to support of a substantiallyspherical pot 36. Since the major diameter of the pot 36 is at itsmidpoint rather than at its rim, as in the pots of FIGS. 1 and 2, theupper beads 24 are positioned somewhat above the midpoint of pot 36 andthe lower beads 22 somewhat below the midpoint. The net structure 26 isthus arranged to span the center portion of pot 36 where the beststability against tipping is achieved.

In FIG. 7 we show a modified form of our sling applied to the support ofa tear-shaped pot 38. The modified sling 40 has a third row of beadswhich are disposed between the upper beads 24 and lower beads 22 andconstitute middle beads 42. In this form, as in the first embodiment,the middle beads 42 each pass a pair of the strands 12, one from each oftwo upper beads 24 on each side of the particular middle bead.

With this modified form the net structure 26 is expanded to provide afull diamond configuration rather than the peripheral series ofalternatedupright and inverted Vs.

To assure the best stability of the pot 38, the net structure 26 in thisform is arranged about the center of the pot where its diameter ismaximum and extends over a greater area above and below the center. Theupper beads 24 are below, but near, the pot rim, the middle beads 42band about the center, and the lower beads 22 are quite near the bottom.By properly placing the rows of beads, they can be made to cinch up onthe individual strands 12 which form' the net structure 26 and draw thenet structure into close conformity with the periphery of the pot 38.This illustrates another advantageous feature of our invention which isavailable in the first form of our preferred embodiments as well, albeitto a lesser extent.

From this description of the two forms of our invention, it should beunderstood that it is also possible to add additional rows of beadswhere it is anticipated that the pot or object to be supported mayrequire them for adequate stability. The two or three rows of beads willsuffice; however, for a great variety of pot shapes.

Fromthis description it should also be understood that the placement ofthe bead rows on the pot contour and cinching upor spreading the beadsas the net structure 26 is formed, provide additional benefit andversatility to our sling.

It is also possible to satisfactorily contain a pot within our sling bylocating all the beads, upper, lower and 5 middle (if used), above thepot and cinching up on the strands above the pot. This necks down thesling above the pot and draws the lower strands passing along the potsnuggly against the pot walls.

It should also be understood that our sling provides great versatilitynot present in previously known slings. In addition to the featuresdescribed above, it is possible, by reason of the mobility of the beads,to reverse the sling and hang it with the bottom knot 18 at the top, andthe top braid 14 and loop 16 at the bottom. Furthermore, it is possibleto position a pot on a slant to vertical as well as in verticalalignment, and still support it securing the sling. Also, by utilizingappropriate beads or rings, it is possible to accommodate flexiblestrands which cannot be readily knotted such as wire or chain.

From this detailed description of a preferred embodiment of ourinvention, it should be understood that it is fully capable of providingthe advantages and achiev-o ing the objects heretofore attributed to it.

I claim:

1. A pot hanging sling comprising:

a plurality of pairs of strands suspended from their upper ends andinterconnected at their lower ends to form a pot support; and

strand connection means interconnected with said strands intermediatetheir ends and disposed to join pairs of adjacent strands, said strandconnection means being movable lengthwise on said strands, and saidstrand connection means includes a plu- 'rality of upper strand junctionmembers each disposed to join a pair of strands, and lower strandjunction members each positioned lower on said strands than said upperstrand junction members and each disposed to join strands each of whichis joined to a different strand by each of two different upper strandjunction members. -2. A pot hanging sling as described in claim 1, inwhich:

said upper strand junction members are beads each mounted on a differentpair of adjacent strands,

. and said lower strand junction members are beads each mounted on adifferent pair of adjacent strands, said pairs of strands upon whichsaid lower beads are mounted containing one strand from each of twodifferent pairs of strands upon which each of two different upper beadsare mounted.

3. A pot hanging sling as described in claim 2, in

which:

each of said lower beads is mounted on a pair of adjacent strands one ofwhich has an upper head on one side of said lower bead mounted thereon,and the other of which has an upper bead on the other side of said lowerbead mounted thereon.

4. A pot hanging sling as described in claim 1, in which:

said strand junction members are so disposed as to form a net structurefrom said strands adapted to cinch up upon the periphery of a pot tohold said pot in said sling.

5. A pot hanging sling comprising:

six flexible strands disposed to be suspended from their upper ends andinterconnected at their lower ends to form a pot support; three firstrow beads each mounted on a separate pair row bead.

6. A pot hanging sling as described in claim 5 which further includes:

three third row beads each mounted on a separate Said strandsintermediate the ends thereof and 5 pair of said strands intermediatethe ends thereof Shdable g thereon}: v and nearer the lower ends thereofthan said second three. secon. row eadfs eac f on a Separate row beadsand slidable manually thereon, said pairs pair of said strandsintermediate the ends thereof b d and nearer the lower ends thereof thansaid first of strandstugon W? of saltd t A": row ea 5 row beads andslidable manually thereon, said pairs 10 are moun e mg 0 ran mm SecofStrands upon which each of Said Second row 0nd row bead disposedperlphenally on one side of beads are mounted consisting of one strandfrom a a Pamcular one of Sam third row beacls and one first row beaddisposed peripherally on one side of Strand from another second row P lp P a particular one of said second row beads and one "P y on the otherslde 0f 531d Particular thlrd strand from another first row beaddisposed periph- WW a erally on the other side of said particular second

1. A pot hanging sling comprising: a plurality of pairs of strandssuspended from their upper ends and interconnected at their lower endsto form a pot support; and strand connection means interconnected withsaid strands intermediate their ends and disposed to join pairs ofadjacent strands, said strand connection means being movable lengthwiseon said strands, and said strand connection means includes a pluralityof upper strand junction members each disposed to join a pair ofstrands, and lower strand junction members each positioned lower on saidstrands than said upper strand junction members and each disposed tojoin strands each of which is joined to a different strand by each oftwo different upper strand junction members.
 2. A pot hanging sling asdescribed in claim 1, in which: said upper strand junction members arebeads each mounted on a different pair of adjacent strands, and saidlower strand junction members are beads each mounted on a different pairof adjacent strands, said pairs of strands upon which said lower beadsare mounted containing one strand from each of two different pairs ofstrands upon which each of two different upper beads are mounted.
 3. Apot hanging sling as described in claim 2, in which: each of said lowerbeads is mounted on a pair of adjacent strands one of which has an upperbead on one side of said lower bead mounted thereon, and the other ofwhich has an upper bead on the other side of said lower bead mountedthereon.
 4. A pot hanging sling as described in claim 1, in which: saidstrand junction members are so disposed as to form a net structure fromsaid strands adapted to cinch up upon the periphery of a pot to holdsaid pot in said sling.
 5. A pot hanging sling comprising: six flexiblestrands disposed to be suspended from their upper ends andinterconnected at their lower ends to form a pot support; three firstrow beads each mounted on a separate pair of said strands intermediatethe ends thereof and slidable manually thereon; three second row beadseach mounted on a separate pair of said strands intermediate the endsthereof and nearer the lower ends thereof than said first row beads andslidable manually thereon, said pairs of strands upon which each of saidsecond row beads are mounted consisting of one strand from a first rowbead disposed peripherally on one side of a particular one of saidsecond row beads and one strand from another first row bead disposedperipherally on the other side of said particular second row bead.
 6. Apot hanging sling as described in claim 5 which further includes: threethird row beads each mounted on a separate pair of said strandsintermediate the ends thereof and nearer the lower ends thereof thansaid second row beads and slidable manually thereon, said pairs ofstrands upon which each of said third row beads are mounted consistingof one strand from a second row bead disposed peripherially on one sideof a particular one of said third row beads and one strand from anothersecond row bead disposed peripherally on the other side of saidparticular third row bead.